mercoledì 15 giugno 2016

POPE FRANCIS AT WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME “Denaturalizing” poverty"

Pope Francis' address to Executive board of WFP

13/06/2016 09:40

Pope Francis on Monday made his first
visit to the United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations agency
that fights hunger. It is the first ever Papal visit to WFP, and comes during
the first year of work towards the landmark Sustainable Development
Goals. These 17 goals have been agreed by all UN Member States and aim to
tackle the root causes of poverty and hunger. At the core of WFP’s work is
a drive to achieve the goal of Zero Hunger by the year 2030. In remarks
prepared for the occasion and delivered on Monday morning, the Pope said that
the "consumerism in which our societies are immersed has made us grow
accustomed to excess and to the daily waste of food." He also noted
that little by little we "are growing immune to other people’s
tragedies, seeing them as something “natural”, adding, "we need to
“de-naturalize” extreme poverty."

The English translation of Pope Francis' prepared address
to the Executive Board of the World Food Programme

Address of His
Holiness Pope Francis

To the Executive
Board of the World Food Programme

Rome, 13 June
2016

I thank Executive Director Ertharin Cousin for her invitation to inaugurate the
2016 annual meeting of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme, and for
her kind words of welcome. I greet Ambassador Stephanie Hochstetter
Skinner-Klée, President of this important gathering of representatives of
different governments called to promote concrete initiatives in the fight
against hunger. In offering a warm greeting to all of you, I express my
gratitude for your many efforts and commitments in service of a cause that
challenges us all: combatting the hunger from which so many of our brothers and
sisters are suffering.

A few moments ago, I prayed before the Memorial Wall, a testimony to the
sacrifice made by members of this organization who gave their lives so that, in
complex and difficult situations, others would not go hungry. We remember
them best by continuing to fight for the great goal of “zero hunger”.
Those names, enshrined at the entrance of this building, are an eloquent sign
that the WFP, far from a cold and anonymous institution, is an effective means
for the international community to carry out ever more robust and productive
activities. The credibility of an institution is not based on its declarations,
but on the work accomplished by its members.

We live in an interconnected world marked by instant communications.
Geographical distances seem to be shrinking. We can immediately know what
is happening on the other side of the planet. Communications
technologies, by bringing us face to face with so many tragic situations, can
help, and have helped, to mobilize responses of compassion and
solidarity. Paradoxically though, this apparent closeness created by the
information highway seems daily to be breaking down. An information
overload is gradually leading to the “naturalization” of extreme poverty.
In other words, little by little we are growing immune to other people’s
tragedies, seeing them as something “natural”. We are bombarded by so
many images that we see pain, but do not touch it; we hear weeping, but do not
comfort it; we see thirst but do not satisfy it. All those human lives
turn into one more news story. While the headlines may change, the pain,
the hunger and the thirst remain; they do not go away.

This tendency –
or temptation – demands something more of us. It also makes us realize
the fundamental role that institutions like your own play on the global
scene. Today we cannot be satisfied simply with being aware of the
problems faced by many of our brothers and sisters. It is not enough to
offer broad reflections or engage in endless discussion, constantly repeating
things everyone knows. We need to “de-naturalize” extreme poverty, to
stop seeing it as a statistic rather than a reality. Why? Because
poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a
family; it has the face of people, young and old. It has the face of
widespread unemployment and lack of opportunity. It has the face of
forced migrations, and of empty or destroyed homes.

We cannot
“naturalize” the fact that so many people are starving. We cannot simply
say that their situation is the result of blind fate and that nothing can be
done about it. Once poverty no longer has a face, we can yield to the
temptation of discussing “hunger”, “food” and “violence” as concepts, without
reference to the real people knocking on our doors today. Without faces
and stories, human lives become statistics and we run the risk of
bureaucratizing the sufferings of others. Bureaucracies shuffle papers;
compassion deals with people.

Here I believe
that we have much to do. In addition to everything already being done, we
need to work at “denaturalizing” and “debureaucratizing” the poverty and hunger
of our brothers and sisters. This requires us to intervene on different
scales and levels, focusing on real people who are suffering and starving, while
drawing upon an abundance of enthusiasm and potential that we need to help
exploit.

1.
“Denaturalizing” poverty

During my visit to the FAO for the Second International Conference on
Nutrition, I spoke of the paradox that, while there is enough food for
everyone, yet “not everyone can eat”, even as we witness “waste, excessive
consumption and the use of food for other purposes” (Address to the Plenary of
the Conference [20 November 2014], 3).

Percentage of national population suffering from malnutrition, according to United Nations statistics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let us be clear. Food shortage is not something natural, it is not a
given, something obvious or self-evident. The fact that today, well into
the twenty-first century, so many people suffer from this scourge is due to a
selfish and wrong distribution of resources, to the “merchandizing” of
food. The earth, abused and exploited, continues in many parts of the
world to yield its fruits, offering us the best of itself. The faces of
the starving remind us that we have foiled its purposes. We have turned a
gift with a universal destination into a privilege enjoyed by a select
few. We have made the fruits of the earth – a gift to humanity –
commodities for a few, thus engendering exclusion. The consumerism in
which our societies are immersed has made us grow accustomed to excess and to
the daily waste of food. At times we are no longer able even to see the
just value of food, which goes far beyond mere economic parameters. We
need to be reminded that food discarded is, in a certain sense stolen, from the
table of poor and the starving. This reality invites us to reflect on the
problem of unused and wasted food, and to identify ways and means which, by
taking this problem seriously, can serve as a vehicle of solidarity and sharing
with those most in need (cf. Catechesis, 5 June 2013).

2. “Debureaucratizing”
hunger

We need to be frank: some issues have been bureaucratized. Some
activities have been “shelved”. Everyone is aware of the present
instability of the world situation. Lately war and the threat of war have
been uppermost in our minds and our discussions. Thus, given the wide
gamut of present conflicts, arms seem to have gained unprecedented importance,
completely sidelining other ways of resolving the issues at hand. This
approach is so deeply engrained and taken for granted that it prevents food
supplies from being distributed in war zones, in violation of the most
fundamental and age-old principles and rules of international law.

We thus find
ourselves faced with a strange paradox. Whereas forms of aid and
development projects are obstructed by involved and incomprehensible political
decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers,
weaponry is not. It makes no difference where arms come from; they
circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the
world. As a result, wars are fed, not persons. In some cases,
hunger itself is used as a weapon of war. The death count multiplies
because the number of people dying of hunger and thirst is added to that of battlefield
casualties and the civilian victims of conflicts and attacks.

We are fully
aware of this, yet we allow our conscience to be anesthetized. We become
desensitized. Force then becomes our one way of acting, and power becomes
our only goal. Those who are most vulnerable not only suffer the effects
of war but also see obstacles placed in the way of help. Hence it is
urgent to debureaucratize everything that keeps humanitarian assistance
projects from being realized. In this regard, you play a fundamental
role, for we need true heroes capable of blazing trails, building bridges,
opening channels concerned primarily with the faces of those who suffer.
Initiatives of the international community must similarly be directed to this
end.

It is not a question of harmonizing interests that remain linked to narrow
national interests or shameful forms of selfishness. Rather, it is a
matter of the member states decisively increasing their commitment to cooperate
with the World Food Program. In this way the WFP will not only be able to
respond to urgent needs, but also to carry out sound projects and promote
long-term development programmes, as requested by each of the governments and
consonant with the needs of peoples.

Through its mission and its activities, the World Food Programme has shown that
it is possible to coordinate scientific knowledge, technical decisions and
practical actions with efforts aimed at obtaining resources and distributing
them impartially, that is to say, with respect for the needs of those who
receive them and the will of the donors. This method, in those areas that
are most depressed and poor, can and must ensure an appropriate development of
local capacities and gradually eliminate external dependence, while at the same
time making it possible to reduce food loss and to ensure that nothing goes to
waste. In a word, the WFP is an excellent example of how one can work
throughout the world to eradicate hunger through a better allotment of human
and material resources, strengthening the local community. In this sense,
I encourage you to move forward. Do not grow weary or let problems
dissuade you. Believe in what you are doing and pursue it
enthusiastically. That is how the seed of generosity grows and bears
abundant fruit.

The Catholic Church, in fidelity to her mission, wishes to cooperate with every
initiative that defends and protects the dignity of persons, especially of
those whose rights are violated. In implementing this urgent priority of
“zero hunger”, I assure you of our complete support and encouragement for the
efforts in course.

“I was hungry and
you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink”.
These words embody one of the axioms of Christianity. Independent of
creeds and convictions, they can serve as a golden rule for our peoples.
A people plays out its future by its ability to respond to the hunger and
thirst of its brothers and sisters. In that ability to come to the aid of
the hungry and thirsty, we can measure the pulse of our humanity. For
this reason, I desire that the fight to eradicate the hunger and thirst of our
brothers and sisters, and with our brothers and sisters, will continue to
challenge us to seek creative solutions of change and transformation. May
Almighty God sustain with his blessing the work of your hands. Thank you